February 5, 2004
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - I've received thousands of emails from around the globe in response to my last column. In it, I contended that Bush's fabricated war against Iraq was a far worse crime than Watergate, and showed the president and his men were either liars or unbelievably inept.
Seventy percent of the emails came from Americans. These messages do not represent a reliable cross section of US public opinion. They are simply what was known as a `convenience sample' when I worked in market research. But they reveal much about the changing mood in America.
Most were well written messages from intelligent, educated people appalled by what their government had done. I was stunned by the volume of bitterly anti-Bush mail from his home state, Texas.
In response to last week's shocking admission by Bush's arms hunter, David Kay, that `we were all wrong,' Pete Hisey of Chicago wrote: `No David. You were wrong. Do not include me in your idiocy.' Right he is.
UN's arms inspector Hans Blix, the French and German governments and their intelligence services, scores of Iraq experts, US Arab allies, the sickeningly slandered Scott Ritter, and this column all repeatedly warned there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — certainly none capable of threatening the USA.
Readers reminded me that in October, 2002, CIA Director George Tenet informed Congress that Iraq had no nuclear weapons and posed no threat. He was largely ignored.
Half my email from Americans was usually hate mail of the vilest and most loutish kind from Bush-adoring rustics, neo-conservatives, and enraged religious militants.
Last week, 96% of my mail turned effusively supportive. In recent months, bitter resentment boiling up across the US, and surging public anger over Iraq, have become evident across the nation. More and more Americans believe they were lied to, misled, and defrauded by the Bush Administration over Iraq — which one witty reader calls `Mess-Opotamia'.
How ironic to see Martha Stewart being pilloried for lying to federal regulators over a modest stock sale while President Bush, who lied Congress and America into a trumped up war, that has killed over 523 Americans and 10,000 Iraqis so far, is running for re-election.
A lot of mail came from Republicans and conservatives expressing disgust at the policies of their party, which, they say, has been hijacked by neo-conservative ideologues. Many Vietnam veterans write they are deeply shamed by what their nation has done in Iraq.
Democrats are in full jihad mode, enraged at Bush and his phony war and the waste of billions on a pointless conflict when America lacks enough flu vaccine. Numerous Democrats still believe the 2000 election was stolen, and are determined to see Bush & Company ousted from office. Expect a high voter turnout in November, particularly women.
Israelis have written me, expressing anguish that their nation's far right Likud Party, led by Ariel Sharon, colluded with far rightists in the Bush Administration — notably Vice President Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz — to engineer the Iraq war through phony intelligence data. A war, say these Israelis, designed to maintain Greater Israel and thwart any peace with Palestinians.
Readers express particular anger and contempt for the pro-war US media. `Rent-a-journalist' and `fools' are some of the gentler terms being hurled at the media.
As one reader noted, `the media was not embedded with US forces in Iraq, they were in bed.' Touché.
Americans are furious the media acted as a shill for the Bush Administration's war policy, whipped up hysteria, and eagerly trumpeted White House propaganda. The media, and particularly the most stridently pro-war newspapers and cable news, have been badly discredited by the Iraq disaster. They could see many readers turn to the internet for more reliable, uncensored news. During the Iraq War, the internet became a sort of `Radio Free America' that gave the lie to all the White House's war propaganda promoted by the mainstream media.
The media deserves censure. Since 9/11, some of North America's media has increasingly resembled the old, boot-licking Soviet media in the days of Chairman Brezhnev, rather than an inquiring free press.
Most readers view the intelligence investigation announced by Bush last week as a cynical whitewash and delaying tactics. British readers say the same about Tony Blair's investigation and the recent Hutton inquiry that found the respected BBC guilty, and the lying Blair innocent — a farce straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
Readers say they are mad as hell, but don't know what to do. They express a loss of trust in their government I've not heard since the days of Nixon and the Watergate scandal. Many think the Dean campaign was sabotaged by the pro-Bush corporate media — a view I partly share. Even more fear November election will again be `stolen,' or a `terrorism crisis' staged to win votes.
Finally, the Sun chain was roundly blasted for being so stridently wrong about Iraq. But is was also strongly lauded by readers for printing and putting online my non-conformist views, however much it disagreed with them.
Foreign Correspondent
